Wen Ho Lee is still making news, despite his release Wednesday by a federal judge who blasted the government for its treatment of the Los Alamos nuclear research scientist.
Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, in an interview with CBS News 60 Minutes, says there will be more information coming out about Lee.
"The issue is not over. There are some very serious additional problems that Dr. Lee has," Richardson told Mike Wallace.
| | | Did The Tests Fail? | | In February, CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reported on the FBI interrogation of Wen Ho Lee that is now the focus of an internal Justice Department review. The extremely confrontational questioning of the Los Alamos scientist in March 1999 was one of a string of episodes in which the Lee probe seemed to deviate from standard investigative procedure. For example, Dept. of Energy polygraphers originally said Lee passed a lie-detector test in Dec. 1998. But the DOE later reversed those findings and deemed the results "incomplete." The FBI subsequently said he had failed. Then the FBI conducted its own test, and said Lee had failed. But it didn't interrogate Lee—odd since he was suspected of compromise national security. When Lee finally was interrogated, the interview involved questions like, "Do you want to go down in history…professing your innocence like the Rosenbergs to the day that they take you to the electric chair?" Click here to read "Wen Ho Lee's Problematic Polygraph." Click here to see Lee's polygraph scores.
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Richardson also stands behind the statement he made 14 months ago that Lee failed two polygraph tests. But Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Publisher Stephen Schwartz tells 60 Minutes, in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday, that Richardson's statement is wrong.
According to Schwartz, Lee passed the first test "with flying colors. He got the highest score you could get and he showed no deception."
Sources said the agents had been ordered to be "very aggressive," but were "not properly trained" and had "rushed the job."During the second test several months later, the FBI agents doing the inquiry "actually cut off the circulation to his thumb" when they wired him to the monitor, Schwartz said
Lee also apparently tried to honor his security oaths by refusing to answer several questions required detailed classified information because he was not in a secure facility, Schwartz said.
Other points Schwartz makes during the 60 Minutes broadcast include:
That there is no evidence linking Lee to the illegal release of any Trident II nuclear warhead secrets from Los Alamos.Lee did download huge amounts of classified information onto a unsecured computer several years ago, in violation of security protocols, but "under the watchful eye" of computer officials at Los Alamos who were monitoring computer transactions. "They noted what Lee was doing. He didn't attempt to hide his tracks." Other did the same thing but were never singled out.There is "no evidence" that Lee took the information with any intent to do anything other than his job, and that most, if not all, was graded unclassified or confidential — confidential being the lowest security classification at Los Alamos.Until FBI agents started making references to the Rosenbergs, an American couple executed for spying on the U.S., Lee cooperated with the agents. The agents' references — and threats — were very explicit. President Bill Clinton said he will contact Attorney General Janet Reno to discuss his concerns about the government's handling of the Lee case.
Mr. Clinton said his staff has already contacted Reno, and "I'm sure I'll have a chance to talk to the attorney general about it." But a presidential spokesman later said he did not expect the president to reach out to the attorney general personally.
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